We've danced around this for a while. Easily my favorite target outside of Durant is Barnes. Love his game and I think he'd be a great fit as a 3&D who can be more if we need it. Not to mention he'll only be 24 next summer. We'd have built a team around 20, 22, and 24 year old players. If we're fortunate they'll have a solid decade of playing together.

After Barnes it's probably Batum for me. He'll be 27 next summer and he'd provide a good veteran presence while still being young enough to grow with our core group. Good outside shooter and defender which is exactly what we need.

I'm a little scared of Parsons' microfracture surgery on his knees. Derozan is a decent addition but his lack of an outside shot is pretty damning.

My ideal off-season starting right now: throw a ton of money at Barnes (could even go as high as max to scare off GSW). Re-sign Hibbert. Re-sign Clarkson. Replace Byron with a more competent coach. Re-sign Huertas. Bring up Upshaw if he's closer to ready.

Honestly I'm not even excited about free agency. We're not in a spot where we can attract great free agents. Players aren't going to leave their contending/championship teams to come on to a rebuilding project either.

I'm not saying Batum wouldn't be a good get, but he's not a player that's easy to get giddy about with the players out there next free agency. And a player like that isn't even a guarantee when every single team will have money to throw around.

I'd be infinitely more excited about a draft thread than a FA thread if we had a good chance of keeping our pick. It's not out of the question with Scott behind the wheel, but if that's the route we're going, we'll be sweating until ping pong ball night.

I'm not into tanking this year. We did that last year, and I'm moving past that. We have enough projects and players on rookie deals that we've stockpiled enough cheap talent to our roster. Next year is the time to keep adding talent and continuing to develop our core,

I'm not suggesting tanking, but we're a subpar team nearly every night with the worst coach currently on a NBA bench. We're going to be a bottom dweller yet again, but unless the basketball gods do us a favor, we won't reap any benefits of sucking. At least with the losing you could see another lotto pick as some sort of silver lining, but that probably won't happen. And we'll be stuck begging 3rd tier FAs to come here on absurd contracts.

Got it. Byron and Kobe will be gone next year. As I noted, we'll have to spend the money next year for better or worse. Resign Hilbert, Clarkson, grab a Baum like player to fill your wing need, a backup rim protecting, big and fill out the rest of our roster. We're missing the PO's this year, and I strong doubt, that we'll stand pat next year knowing that Jim is on a deadline, and we need to see some progress made.

Assuming we don't get Durant, Barnes, or Derozan, I wouldn't be opposed to throwing a big deal at Mike Conley. I get that we have a lot of guards, but I think his two way ability makes him extremely valuable. Phoenix was able to parlay a three guard rotation of Dragic, Thomas, and Bledsoe into a pretty decent squad through trades. I think we could do the same. At this point I just want as much talent as possible...especially considering we have very little semblance of a basketball system in place on the court anyways.

I'm not as high on Harrison Barnes as some of you guys are. He's good, but not as good as some of you are implying.

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Maybe it's not so much about Barnes alone as much as it is him possibly being the final piece to the starters. The real young and athletic SF we are missing. You add Barnes to Russ, JC, Randle and Hibbert, you have something decent building.

I'm not as high on Harrison Barnes as some of you guys are. He's good, but not as good as some of you are implying.

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It's the fact that he's a perfect fit with Randle, Clarkson, Russell and hopefully Hibbert. Gives that line up another defender, a 3 point threat and a guy that doesn't need the ball to be effective. Throw a guy like KD in that mix and you have 4 players that needs the ball to be effective. Derozan is not that great a floor spacer, great athlete to run with our young guns though.

Gotcha. I guess I just reacted to Barnes being next to the words "franchise player."

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I think you'd have to pay him like one to be able to get him out of GS. That's the only reason his name is next to that phrase. You still build around probably Randle as your "go-to" star and Russell as your orchestrator.

We are unlikely to keep that pick even if we're one of the worst teams in the league. The confidence comes from necessity. That 60 million dollars is going somewhere and someone will be willing to take it. We're going to overpay for someone and end up with players in FA. The likelihood of that is a good 5-10 times that of us keeping our pick.